Brain and Language

Damasio and Damasio (1992) discussed the detailed mechanics of countersignatureing bear upon by the military personnel promontory. Their cla hire, inaugural formal a general understanding of much(prenominal) notions as the wizardrys dexterity to categorize and classify word-forms through and through the mediation of the human sensors. According to their member, the brains leave and right hemispheres contains three neuronic structures. The first extensive structure processes the non-verbal representations harmoniumizing goals, events, and intercourseships.Second structure, dictated only in the left wing hemisphere is creditworthy for producing the language through and with phonemes, phonemic and syntactic structures with the resulting word-forms. They referred to the third structure as a mediating structure that nates assortment the concept into the word form or vice versa. Their that discourse proceeded into the particulariseds of the brain anatomy and variou s effects of the scathe or lesions of the parcels of the brain. Their examples with the color recognition were particularly impressive when they heard the check out know as achromatopsia lack of ability to discern colors (i.e. seeing the environment in the shades of gray). The article was especially effectual in describing the complicated mechanism slow the color recognition, color salmagundi and classification, and producing the plant word-form for the specific color. The article argues against the traditionally fantasy the pictorial representations of the objects, soulfulnesss, or any combination of the environmental experiences but instead the authors describe their theory of how records of uneasy activity be stored in the sensory and motor cortices.Such patterns of synaptic activity also act through and with associations on which one particular object will associate with the patterns of color, shape, usage, tactile perceptions, and the feelings that a person has usually when using this object. The authors save state that the neural actions that occur as the result of interaction betwixt the person and the object happen in contrastive partingal atomic number 18as of the brain and come in concert in areas of convergence of synaptic connectednesss.Then echo of the event and its associated experiences depend upon simultaneous reactivation of the neural actions within the neuron assemblies when those fire simultaneously and reactivate the previously occurred patterns of neural activity. Simultaneously, the categorization and classification occurs in much(prenominal) like or related neural actions are activated together. The categorization and classification abilities of the first neural structure make it likely to distinguish objects by their characteristics and function stored previously, as Damasio and Damasio describe the example with a umber cup.Such recollection is perhaps responsible for the brains ability to express the make w ithin concept and to understand a plenary input as the concept. The article further exemplifies a curious condition in which a patient would complimentary an ability to define a concept for a unique entity (like an wight species in the authors example). From this example, the reader would get hold of that the affected patient would not be cap fit to name any animal species (i. e. racoon) nor would narrate its size, color, or shape.He would simply say animal when presented with the picture of a raccoon (Damasio Damasio, 1992). When describing the affect produced by the specific lesion of the depute within the left hemisphere, the authors wrote about the before disco actually by Paul Broca and Carl Wernicke of the phenomenon called intellectual dominance which specifically pointed out at the left hemisphere as the organ responsible for the drudgery and touch on of human language in 99 share of right-handed and two-thirds of left handers. The article confirms these examine b y briefly discussing the research by Edward Klima of the University of California at San Diego and Ursula Bellugi of the Salk Institute of biologic Studies in San Diego who have discovered that aphasia (condition that impedes language-interpreting ability) is caused by damage to the particular region of the left hemisphere of the brain. Using the aphasic patients, the investigators were able to map the neural activities responsible for the constitution of the language and its interpretation (also including new(prenominal) variations of language much(prenominal) as sign language) (Damasio & Damasio, 1992).With having a map in front of them, the neuroscientists and other field investigators would be able to settle exactly which function would be stricken as the result of damage to which portion of the left hemisphere. This would also extend to the prophetical ability as far as other functions of the whole language end product mechanism are concerned. Example of such can be act ual production of speech sounds, intonation (i. e.speaking in a flat tone, long pauses amidst the words and defective grammar), the impairment of associable and habit learning, production of nouns, production of verbs (nouns and verbs are produced and processed in contrasting regions), hindrance understanding meanings that represent the syntactic structures, and the softness to understand the meaning of non-reversible passive structures. The authors further attempt to defend their point of suck in favor of the mediating system between the structure that is responsible for concept processing and the system that actually produces word and word structures.According to them, the mediating systems function would be that of the selection of the correct meaning of lexicon or that connecting the concepts interrelationship. It is understood that mediation system is mostly activated when the person attempts to understand the comprehensive input. The pattern of comprehension sets in i ntercommunicate the mediating system that is capable of bringing associative connections between the concepts, particular experiences, and generalized experiences together. To symbolize their view, the authors mention A. N. and L. R.as patients who have a chore in retrieval of common nouns representing sealed entities. Their deficit in the specific word-form retrieval is causes by their inability to activate the mediation system that deprives them of the ability to bring the connection between the concepts (i. e. of the noun and what that noun represents as far as the object and its function). Damasio and Damasio explained such selective in fittingness by stating that the selectivity in conceptualization of entities depends upon the absence or presence of the personal relation of the patient to the entity/concept.By loosing the function of some regions of the left hemisphere, the patients will respond by loosing the specific speech/conceptualization function that is mapped to that region. In A. N. and L. R. case it was the damage to anterior and midtemporal cortices that rendered them futile to pick may common nouns. The article concludes with the detailed discourse into the studies by the company of researchers at Washington University.Specifically, this group was elicit in the production and interpretation of verbs and functors and how the nouns can be mediated together with the book actions, like the noun apple would mediate with the verb eat. Their conclusions illustrated a situation in which the damage to the authorized left hemisphere regions would disrupt such association rendering the patient futile to produce the appropriate verb and further disrupting their use of grammar (Damasio & Damasio, 1992).The article was comprehensive in its purpose in terms of being able to describe the complex structure and function of the left hemispheres regions responsible for processing, production, and mediation of the components of human language. The on ly unfavorable judgment of the article that I have is that the authors act to place too much of really specific information into a very small format. The complexity of the concepts behind the meaning would be better delivered if more practicable examples were used and the text would be define with a larger number of dress terms.In general, the articles audience appeared to be professionals or paraprofessionals who already had a meaningful understanding within the field. It would be hard to understand for people with a especial(a) knowledge and background within the field. The illustrations were adequate and the sources appropriate in both flavour and quantity. My suggestion for the further research would be targeting the Visio-Spatial Memory Units that are units of memory assembled from different perceptual input within the operative Memory (Baddely, 1992).Further, my suggestion would be to check up on the alternative approaches to the definition and theoretical functio n-ability of the short memory. References Baddeley AD. 1992. Working memory. Science 255556-59 Damasio, A. R. , & Damasio, H. (1992). Brain and Language, scientific American, pg. 89- 95, Retrieved June 28, 2007 from http//www. utdallas. edu/wkatz/Proseminar_articles. html